COMPREHENSION
There are several reading comprehension strategies that can be taught to struggling readers. What works for one child might not work so well for another. There are no "cookie cutter" children. These strategies need to be taught explicitly (directly) so the child knows what to do. Focus on only one strategy per week. (All of these are taught to students at CRE.) Here are the strategies that have been proven to help most struggling comprehenders:
1) MOTIVATION - Find reading material that interests you. Hey, if it's boring, look for something else.
2) MAKE CONNECTIONS - Help your child make connections between what is being read to something that happened in his/her life.
3) VISUALIZING - Create pictures in your mind of what you are reading. Think of the five senses to help you imagine the story: sight, sound, touch, smell, taste.
4) PREDICTING - Read a little, then ask, "What do you think is going to happen next?" or "What if...."
5) QUESTIONING - After reading a bit, come up with a question or two you have about what was read or what you didn't understand (content or vocabulary).
6) MODELING - Read aloud to your child while s/he follows along. Show how a good reader is fluent, yet pauses for commas, stops for periods, and uses expression for exclamation marks. Stop at times and ask your child what a word means. You may be surprised when you see that your child doesn't know the meanings of many words that seem very obvious to you. One game I played with my own struggling reader children was "Catch Me If You Can." I would read aloud while my child read the same words silently. I would purposely say a wrong word, for example if the text said "ran" I might say "jogged." If my child caught me and said the correct word, s/he got a point. After so many points a reward was earned.
7) RETELLING - Stop often (every page or two) and try to retell what you just read.
2) MAKE CONNECTIONS - Help your child make connections between what is being read to something that happened in his/her life.
3) VISUALIZING - Create pictures in your mind of what you are reading. Think of the five senses to help you imagine the story: sight, sound, touch, smell, taste.
4) PREDICTING - Read a little, then ask, "What do you think is going to happen next?" or "What if...."
5) QUESTIONING - After reading a bit, come up with a question or two you have about what was read or what you didn't understand (content or vocabulary).
6) MODELING - Read aloud to your child while s/he follows along. Show how a good reader is fluent, yet pauses for commas, stops for periods, and uses expression for exclamation marks. Stop at times and ask your child what a word means. You may be surprised when you see that your child doesn't know the meanings of many words that seem very obvious to you. One game I played with my own struggling reader children was "Catch Me If You Can." I would read aloud while my child read the same words silently. I would purposely say a wrong word, for example if the text said "ran" I might say "jogged." If my child caught me and said the correct word, s/he got a point. After so many points a reward was earned.
7) RETELLING - Stop often (every page or two) and try to retell what you just read.
